My coast: Jimmy Doherty

'The British seaside is full of contrasts. We've got it all: sweeping beaches in Wales, quintessential Victorian Brighton and then there's  North Uist - one minute it's like the Caribbean, the next, the weather changes and it looks like Iceland.

 

'I've always been interested in natural history and the great outdoors. I took a degree in Zoology and a PhD in Entomology, but the farming interest was always there. A friend's dad had a smallholding with Dexter cattle and Ryeland sheep, and that fired my imagination. One day I was counting flies in the lab and it just hit me that I wanted to be a farmer.

 

'When I was five, my nan used to take me, my brother and my cousin to Southend for the day. It was hilarious. At that age, I might as well have been going to Las Vegas! There was a fun fair on the promenade with a big galleon and if you looked through a tiny window, you could see a sailor being tortured by pirates - it was the most horrific thing I had ever seen. At 18, I went back and it was just two shop dummies with eye patches.

 

'When we need a break, my wife Michaela and I whiz from our farm in Suffolk to Aldeburgh. There are always queues outside the great fish and chip shops there. You can't beat that lovely smell of salt and malt vinegar. You drive past parked cars on little grassy hillocks and the windows are all steamed up from the heat. It's a lovely British image.

 

Michaela and I finally found time to get married this summer. We gave everyone a tractor ride back to the farm; my mate Jamie [Oliver] had the night off and we feasted on hog roast, lamb and a fantastic local cheese platter. Then we went off on honeymoon to a cottage on the coast near Cork.

 

'I love to go fishing. I walk through the fields from the farm and sit on the beach to fish for sea bass. Afterwards, when the tide goes out, you can comb the shore for wild oysters and pick samphire.

 

'Everyone loves Cyril, our local fisherman complete with bushy beard. He comes to our monthly farmer's market with his smoked haddock and smoked cod, skate wings, crab, kippers and fantastic mackerel - by lunchtime, he is sold out.

 

'I abseiled off a cliff on the south coast with a geologist tied to my back when making "Darwin's Garden" for the BBC. I felt like a gull and it certainly gave me a different perspective. Suddenly, you realise how unique some of these habitats are.

 

'The coastline is a constant, moving environment. The coastline is hugely important. It's our interface with the ocean. I think underwater National Parks are a great idea.'

 

Jimmy Doherty will present Field to Plate and Jimmy's Global Harvest on BBC2 this winter.

 

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